


Over the Rainbow

by silentstephi



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 08:00:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5959833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentstephi/pseuds/silentstephi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tracking down the few groups left with information on the Collectors and possibly the Reapers hasn't been easy, but with Liara and a bit Feron's help, Shepard and crew may be able to pull it off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. More Than What You Bargained For

**Author's Note:**

> This was a fill for BionicLemon over at NSAS Sekrit Santa! I hope you enjoy it! I know I enjoyed thinking about it. :3
> 
> Also a big THANK YOU to R'Shara and meekzu for beta reading!

Staring at the vid screen in front of him, Garrus was starting to feel like maybe this whole thing wasn't such a good idea after all.

The creak of leather was all that gave away the assassin at his back, watching the perimeter monitors for their target.

The events on his monitor inside the small hotel room where Shepard and Feron were staging their show made his stomach clench.

Earlier that week, he and Shepard had gone over the mission details, curled up on her couch up in the Loft.

"We won't be able to move on to the Kiltarn Slaver Ring until we find that base. Shi'lkah knows where it is. I just hope this idea of Liara's works." Shepard nibbled on some jerky and looked up at Garrus. "You sure you're ok with this?" Her facial expression was carefully neutral, but a small part of him was a little relieved that she had asked.

He halted mid shrug, then nodded, "It gets the job done. Less mess too. If we tried blasting and prying our way into this ring, all the leads will dry up. Liara's still working on the other two Collector tech leads, and we need to know if any more are out there to bite us in the ass once the Reapers get here."

Twisting her hand around his, she leaned into his chest, snuggling up to him. She was warm on his side and the smell of her shampoo was beginning to distract him. She said, "I know. I've done under cover work before, just never so… literally." She traced her fingers lightly over his bare palm. The touch was feathery. So much potential violence and destruction in those hands and yet there was gentleness too. The thought of them on Feron made his mood darken. They both knew the whole mission was an act. Small sacrifices for the greater good and all, right?

"Seems we're about to have an audience," Thane's gravelly voice snapped Garrus back to the present, and he looked at his monitors. Outside of the hotel, the foot traffic was moderate. A hooded figure broke off from the crowd and turned left into the alleyway behind the hotel.

Inside the room Shepard and Feron hadn't changed position. The drell looked odd wearing nothing but a light vest and cut offs. It showed off his vivid coloring and striped scaling. Shepard was lounging in a chair opposite Feron, casually holding her glass of wine, wearing a sleek black robe and looking like the bored mistress she was pretending to be. The drell was cleaning some of her leg plates.

Tapping into comms, Garrus said, "Show time Shepard. Peeper's ETA, five minutes."

She scratched her throat idly and nodded slightly.

Thane and Garrus had been on many missions once the assassin had joined the team. This time was different though. Thane knew that the Commander and her unofficial XO had not revealed their relationship publicly. But the Normandy was a small ship and he has observed that humans do love their gossip. Thane could see the tension in the turian's shoulders. He turned his attention from Garrus and glanced at the monitor to see Shepard crook her finger at Feron. He put down the armor stood with his head down and brought her some refreshments. While she picked through the food, her hand wandered, and Thane watched as she put his advice to use.

Something flicked on his monitor from outside the hotel and he shifted his attention back to his task. Then his omni-tool beeped. "Seems our audience wants a closer look. Tali, do you see it?"

The quarian's voice came over Thane and Garrus's headsets, "Got it. Whoever it is has hacked into the security cameras inside. Starting the back trace now." Tali was on the Normandy while both she and EDI worked on the trace. This left Thane and Garrus with nothing more to do than watch the Commander's back should she need it.

Events outside were quiet and unchanging, so Garrus reluctantly dragged his vision back to the inside monitor. From the zoomed out view, it was difficult to see the stiffness to what the two "lovers" were doing, but he knew Shepard. He could see it. Shepard's hands wandered over the drell, who was currently kneeling at her feet and rubbing circles into her now exposed thigh, but her hands were unsure and hesitant.

His face flushed a light blue, but he couldn't look away. Then he heard her giggle. Giggle? Shepard didn't giggle. Both she and Feron laughed and the tension seemed to melt from the room. He watched with mouth ajar as she slid down from her chair and straddled the drell in front of her.

Ok, the tension really seemed gone now. Something was off. Garrus was so focused on what he was seeing he jumped when his earpiece cracked, "Vakarian? Krios? Slight problem here."

It was Feron. Garrus blinked and said, "What's wrong?"

He saw Shepard push Feron down on to the carpet and tug his vest out of his pants. Feron was doing the best he could to make it seem like he was playing along, but his hands and arms were doing a lot more deflecting than helping.

Over Feron's mic Garrus heard the problem as Shepard softly growled out, "Garrus stop being such a tease."

Oh.

Crap.

Thane cleared his throat, "Ah. Hrm. I guess she's more sensitive than we initially thought."

Garrus eyed the assassin and his mandibles flickered, "Sensitive to what?"

"Drell saliva. Though in her case, it could be sweat too."

"Crap." They all thought she'd be fine with the slight narcotic effects of drell saliva since neither Shepard nor Feron planned on kissing. But if she was hallucinating, she would blow their cover if she started using Garrus's name. The backgrounds they had to create to get through to this piece of the puzzle mentioned nothing about Vakarian. And his was an awfully turian sounding name.

He had to think fast too because Feron had managed to slide out from under her amorous pawing and stood over by the end of the bed on the other side of the room. That was when Garrus saw her lift her arm and clench her fist. He knew that gesture very well, so when he saw her blur across the room to pounce on the surprised drell, he suppressed a groan of his own. Hopefully the Peeper had not caught the brief biotic display.

Comms still active with Feron, Garrus blurted, "Feron just follow my lead." He cut audio with the drell and switched on Shepard's. He growled into his mic, "That's cheating Shepard. You know better than that."

From the monitor he saw her back shake with a husky laugh while she hovered over Feron. He could almost hear the laugh in his head. Her voice carried low over Feron's mic, "Then stop squirming, turian, and I'll play nice."

His mouth went a little dry, but the mission came first. He let a bit of his own frustration at being an observer to all this carry over into his voice, "All you had to do was ask." He switched back to Feron's channel and said, "Bite her."

There was a moment of hesitation from the drell, but then Shepard rubbed her forehead over Feron's. Garrus watched from the suddenly too warm comfort of their stake out position as the drell took this opportunity to bite Shepard's shoulder. She moaned. Garrus's gut clenched.

Calmly and quietly Thane turned from Garrus and the inside monitor and looked back to outside, where the Peeper hadn't moved. He opened his channel to Tali, "Any progress?"

With a note of excitement in her voice, "He's good. But I'm better. I should have a location in another ten minutes. So far we've been able to narrow it down to a star system in the Artemis Tau cluster."

Ten minutes was a long time, Thane thought as he looked at his turian friend. Garrus's voice was low, but rough, and Thane could not fathom what was going through the turian's mind at this moment. He felt a bit voyeuristic, but it was almost like watching a transport wreck. Hard to look away. Garrus was standing, leaning over the desk of the vid screens and gripping the edge of it with both hands. Thane let his gaze skim over the screen and then let his eyes skirt away.

Not bad, he thought. That brief glance was all it took to take in the little bits of controlled and primal violence happening in that room. Just one of his more interesting memories since running into Shepard.

Minutes later Thane heard Feron's voice over the channel. His voice was low and he sounded a bit out of breath, "You're going to let me kill that peeping perv once the mission is done, right?"

"Business first, pleasure second," Garrus replied. His voice sounded like he had regained control of himself. His face was flushed blue, making the scar on his face a deep purple, but otherwise he looked okay. He sat down again and watched the screen. The indoor storm seemed to have calmed, and a naked Commander was snuggled up against a naked Feron. It looked as if it was too warm for sheets. She was murmuring into his chest as her head rested on his shoulder but looked like she was falling asleep.

This mission just seemed to have more and more surprises. Commander Shepard, savior of the Citadel and Destroyer of the Collectors, got sleepy after rigorous physical activity. Having had seen her on the battle field, this was an interesting foot note to an already intriguing person. The urge to laugh was hard to resist, but Thane didn't want Garrus to take it the wrong way, so he stayed quiet.

Garrus was too busy trying to regain his composure and watching the screen to notice Thane's internal struggle. He watched Shepard and knew this wasn't her normal behavior. The narcotic effect of drell seemed to be playing havoc with her system.

A few times he saw her rouse from her twilight, but Feron just put a finger on her mouth and she would lull back into slumber.

Tali's voice broke through the silence, "Got him! He's on Proteus. Looks like an underwater facility. Private owners, not a lot of info on the extra-net but I'll keep digging."

"Good work Tali. Tell Joker we'll meet at the RP in 90 minutes." Garrus looked at Thane, who seemed unphased by what just happened.

The drell raised a brow ridge at him, "So."

Garrus cleared his throat, looked at the outside camera again, where their Peeper was moving off and back into the crowds of Omega. "So."

Flipping his channel to Feron back on, Garrus said, "Show's over. We got the coords. Meet us at RP Beta in ten."

"Uh, Vakarian? Maybe you should meet us here. I have a feeling the Commander would rather wake up to your smiling mug than mine. Plus, I need to get these cuts and bites looked at…"

Thane looked at Garrus curiously, which made the turian laugh while he shrugged. "The sacrifices we all make, Feron. We'll be there in ten."


	2. Under the Bus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again meekzu for beta reading this for me! Not as silly as the last chapter, something about the story was kind of buggin' me, and this is the result.

_Cinnamon swirls of warm air rushed over her. A myriad of color fractured her view. Rough plates, suede skin, sharp stings blossomed on her arms and chest. Smooth surface morphed into sand paper and vision snapped back with clarity._ It wasn't him.

Her eyes flashed open, her breathing was a harsh sound in the quiet of the loft. The aqua glow from her empty aquarium left her disoriented for a moment. She thought she saw a familiar lump next to her, but once she blinked the sleep away, she saw that she was alone.

She closed her eyes and swallowed, calming herself. _Just a dream._ She huffed and slammed her back against the headboard. Alone. Again. Guilt chewed at her stomach.

It had been two days since the incident on Omega, and Shepard was still in a foul mood. Joker said they had another twenty hours before they would reach the base on Proteus. Plans had been made for the raid. Plans that involved everyone on the mission, but she could not shake the sinking feeling in her gut when she caught sight of their one passenger; the one she really did not want to see right now.

Avoiding the drell and the turian after each mission brief had been hell. It wasn't just embarrassment that put her on avoidance mode. Something else was nagging at her. She had to figure it out on her own. Maybe it was a guilty conscious, but she hadn't had a full night's sleep since. Garrus gave her space, and she appreciated that at first. But now she wasn't sure if it was because something upset him or not. She had meant to go down to the Main Battery earlier, but after supper she took the elevator back to the loft instead.

She berated herself as she picked away at the sheet with her fingers. She needed to stop running from this. She didn't run from confrontations. She charged right into them, dammit. _Fuck it,_ she thought. She tossed the blanket aside and grabbed her pants. She squirmed into them and threw a light, wide necked sweater on and padded out into the hall to the elevator.

She needed advice, and she really hoped he was awake.

When the elevator doors opened, she said, "EDI, is Krios awake?"

"Yes, Commander. Shall I warn him of your arrival?"

"No."

"Very well, Commander."

She chewed her lip in thought as the elevator descended. _This is stupid, you should have waited until the morning._ No. I need my thoughts focused on the mission on hand. The doors opened and her bare feet slapped softly on the floor as she made her way down to the hall to the right. She flexed her hands and tried to relax. Before she had a chance to knock on the door to Life Support a gravelly voice called out, "Enter."

The doors slid open and she walked into the low lit room. They closed behind her and she saw Thane, as he usually was, with his back to her staring out over the Normandy's thrumming drive core. The only difference was he wasn't wearing his jacket, but a black under shirt instead. _Guess those neck stripes do keep going…_

Her mouth dried a bit, but she gritted her teeth, "Hey, have a few minutes to talk?"

Thane turned to look at her and nodded, his neutral expression marred by a slight quirk in his brow plates which she wasn't sure was concern or some other emotion. "Of course, Siha. What's on your mind?"

She didn't bother using the opposite chair but instead leaned against the side of the table, her back to the assassin. She was having a hard time not flashing back to another drell. She wished he was wearing his jacket.

She waved a hand at the name and crossed her arms. "Not feeling all that angelic at the moment." Her brow furrowed, "I want to apologize."

A pause. "You have done something wrong?"

"Yup. I just don't know how."

"How to what?"

"Apologize. To apologize to a drell."

Realization dawned on his face. "Ah. Have you spoken to him?"

She snorted, "No, that's why I'm here. How do I apologize for something you can't forget? Humans have a saying, 'Forgive and forget.' I'm looking for forgiveness, but I'll never get forgetfulness." She shivered and a memory washed over her. _…words whispered in her ear, a low growl, sandpaper skin, teeth, claws, pleasure…_

The creak of leather brought her back as Thane stood up and paced to the weapon's window. He was quiet otherwise, thinking; of what, she wasn't sure.

"It was a risk. Admittedly, none of us thought you would have such a potent reaction, but he went into this knowing that."

She growled low in her throat, frustrated and angry at herself, "That's not it, though. I feel… hell Thane, I feel like I violated him." _And maybe Garrus too,_ a small part of her thought. There, she said it. Her cheeks were flushed, the memory of the event, while not as poignant as a drell's perfect recall, was keeping her up at night. The feelings and sensations felt tainted to her now. The bite on her shoulder ached slightly, beating in time with her guilt. It wasn't helping that the curve of Thane's very exposed neck was starting to make her fingers itch.  
His shadow crossed her field of vision as he walked up to her and looked her in the eyes. "I realize how this may sound coming from me, siha, but I think you should talk to him. Apologize if it will make you comfortable. I am certain, if it is what you genuinely feel, he will be fine."

She chewed her lip. Krios's expression had changed. She was pretty sure the upward sweep of the brow plates was him showing a bit of compassion. It was different.

She sighed and slapped her hands on to her thighs. Anything to distract her, because talking to someone about this was starting to drive her nuts. _Maybe coming to Krios was a bad idea…_ She cleared her throat and nodded, attempting to focus on her major problem. "So, not so different from humans I guess." She looked up into his eyes, those pools of darkness that sometimes reminded her of the expanse of space and swallowed. "Thanks Thane. I appreciate the ear."

He nodded and led her to the door. Outside of Life Support, she shuddered. It was cooler out here in the hall, but her skin still felt a bit flush. _So, saying sorry works. Get over yourself already._ She grunted to herself and hoped it would be that simple. As it were, she still needed to talk to Garrus. She headed down to the main battery, sad that the crew deck was so quiet. So many lost. She rubbed her hip where the new tattoo of roses and thorns were, one for each soul lost under her command, while she walked across the empty mess.

Bare feet might have been a bad idea in hindsight. The grates over to the main battery dug into the balls of her feet and made her grumble. But she needed to see Garrus, talk to him, and make sure he wasn't pissed at this whole mess and her subsequent attitude after.

_Savior of the Citadel my ass, you're worried your boyfriend might be mad you screwed another guy and actually enjoyed it._

_Shut up._ Mission's not done. She needed to fix this before she went crazy and did something that got them hurt or dead.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't realize Garrus already had company. When the door swooshed open, she saw the half armored turian leaning on his station, arms crossed, head down and in mid sentence to someone sitting on the crate near his bunk. He wasn't wearing his chest armor, just a sleeveless grey undershirt that showed off the tan hide and grey plating of his arms. It was mildly distracting.

He had been speaking to the last person she expected to see in the main battery. _Rainbow colored scales, sandpaper scratches, pulses of pleasure-_ She blinked and began to sweat. Feron stared back at her. The bandages were gone, _(thank God)_ , but he had what she thought was an amused look on his face. His armored cloak slash jacket was lying next to him and he had his hands clasped around his crossed knee. Thankfully, he was clothed from head to foot. He looked up at Shepard and said, "Speak of the devil…" She swallowed and blinked rapidly, hoping the memories would just leave her the hell alone god dammit.

Too late to bow out now without looking like a total ass, so she squared her shoulders and walked the full way into the main battery. "Hey."

Garrus' mouth shut with a soft click of teeth as he stopped mid sentence. In retrospect, this night was already turning out to be pretty strange, so he should have expected her. First Feron cornered him late in the evening shift to talk about the night on Omega, and then Shepard shows up to talk. Garrus shifted his weight and looked her over.

She looked like hell. There were dark circles under her eyes, like she was wearing paint in the wrong place. The sweater she was wearing showed off her bare shoulders. The angry red frame of Feron's teeth mark on her right shoulder was a bit distracting, but he forced his eyes away and noticed she was bare foot. She looked cold, crossing her arms and leaning back on the now closed door.

She cleared her throat, "So."

Thane said the same thing that night and it made Garrus chuckle to himself as he responded, "So."

Feron leaned back, looked at Garrus then Shepard and drawled, "Shepard, look, I appreciate that you've been kicking yourself for this, I really do. But while I like fire in my women, I don't like them with napalm. He's all yours." With that, the drell grabbed his jacket and stood up, nodded to Garrus and headed for the door. Before he could leave she stopped him with an outstretched hand.

"Still, for what it's worth Feron, I'm sorry." Her voice was firmer than it was a second ago. Good sign? Garrus hoped so.

The colorful drell rolled his eyes and waved his fused fingered hand at her, "Trust me Commander, I've been through much, much worse for less." He winked at her and walked down the crew quarters deck to the elevator.

The doors whooshed close which brought Garrus's attention back to Shepard. She had a confused look on her expressive face. He stayed leaning on the console. He watched the thoughts flitting across her face, emotions being processed, words being chosen. The muscle movements were a treat to watch.

Then her eyes focused on him and he felt a small jolt at the look. She jerked her head to the side, "Sit, please." She headed to the opposite side of the battery and paced back and forth. His mandibles twitched, curious at the order, but he complied and sat on the crate next to his make shift bunk.

Garrus knew Shepard to be a lot of things: confident, a smart ass, quick thinking, quick to anger and loyal to a fault sometimes, but this was a new side to her. She was nervous, distracted, almost flighty. It wasn't her at all. She kept pacing across the room, her mouth moving but no sound was coming out. He didn't like it.

"Spit it out Shepard. Unlike what the human holo vids claimed, this turian isn't a mind reader." He was getting nervous just watching her.

She sighed, dropped her arms to her sides and walked over to plop down on the floor in front of him. From the floor she looked up at him and said, "I needed to be sure you weren't mad at me." She winced, the corner of her eye crinkling a bit. "Fuck, that sounds so stupid. Look, Garrus, I knew the risks. We all did. But…"

She trailed off, like her tongue had grown too big to keep going. He nodded and then leaned over his legs to clasp his talons in front of him at her eye level. Her eyes focused on his fingers as he said, "I'm not sure I follow, Shepard. Nothing bad came from it. As operations go, it was a smooth mission." He coughed then as his face colored. The things he had to say to Feron still made his stomach clench, and he noticed her eyes had moved from his hands to his face. She lifted a hand and touched his talons, which he took and she gripped his hand tighter.

"Yea, smooth, maybe, so why do I feel like the biggest ass ever?" she said as she laid her head against his leg. He felt bad he was still wearing the armored leggings. He knew they must have been cold but she didn't seem to mind.

"Feron's reaction wasn't what I was expecting," she murmured. He laughed at that and said, "Ah, well I wouldn't worry about him. We talked for a bit. I guess he wanted to clear the air. Noticed you being on pins and needles and wanted to cover his bases I suppose. I think you where his next stop." He could feel her hands, chill at first touch, warm up. He spared a glance and saw that her neck was flushing red. It made the small spots (freckles, he remembered) on her skin stand out. Ah, so she was still embarrassed.

He was amused about the thought. There was something she could be embarrassed about.

"So what's really bugging you about all this? I've never seen you this distracted over a successful info tag before."

She prodded his side, making him jump. It was a soft spot between plates. "Ow, hey!" She then hauled herself up off her feet but before he could react, she straddled his legs and sat in his lap. Now he had full view of a blushing Commander and his mouth went a little dry.

She licked her lips, nervous, and said, "I think what's really had me distracted was I… I liked it."

His eyes widened a touch, his mandibles twitched. "Should I go get-?" She placed her finger to his mouth and shook her head. Her face was really red now, but her dark eyes were bright, dilated. "No. Forget him. There's words, Vakarian. Things you said, promises I hope you'll keep." Her voice had dropped an octave and she lightly brushed her fingers over his face. His heart skipped a few beats. Her hands slipped down over his chest and wrapped themselves in his shirt. She tugged him closer and pressed her lips to his mouth. Warm air trapped by her shoulder length dark hair washed against his face and he brought his hands up her sides, under her sweater. Her skin was feverish, hot to the touch. He was glad he had waited her out, because he had been dying to talk to her, touch her, anything since that night. His embarrassment had been short lived. Even with Krios in the room to overhear, the drell had been stoic about the whole affair and never mentioned anything.

But what he saw and felt right now made his blood boil and his groin ache, and this was the sweet, sweet release he had been waiting-

"Commander Shepard, we have an incoming message, flagged *URGENT* from our contact with the Shadow Broker. Tali'Zora is also requesting your presence in engineer-"

The frustrated growl that bubbled up from Shepard's throat vibrated through him. She turned to glare at the AI that had popped up from the battery console. "Really EDI? Now? What's the message?"

The AI didn't sound offended at the Commander's gruff tone, "Communications chatter from the Kiltarn's base on Proteus have picked up. It seems they are evacuating the facility."

Garrus gripped her sides as she huffed out a shuddering sigh. "Fuck. Ok EDI. Tell Tali I'll be there in five. What's our ETA to the Athen's System?"

"Fifteen galactic standard hours."

"Right. EDI, tell the squad and Feron to meet me in the conference room in fifteen. Shepard out."

The blue orb of the AI winked out.

Shepard looked at him. He knew she'd see the hunger there, but the mission was in jeopardy. "Time for Plan B," she said with a soft note of frustration in her voice. "We'll finish this conversation later, Vakarian." She pressed her face to his and her strange spicy scent filled his head. He murmured against her lips, "Hold you too that, Shepard."

She laughed low in her throat and stood up. His chest was suddenly chill with the absence, and she padded her way out to the crew deck and to the elevator beyond.

He shook his head and leaned back. His fringe bumped up against the bulkhead. He needed a minute to clear his mind before he went down to the conference room for the mission revision. The end of this mission could not come fast enough.


End file.
